Toyota plans to rev up its vehicle production in the U.S., despite November's 7.3% drop in U.S. sales. The automaker has hired the first of an expected 2,000 workers for a new Mississippi Corolla plant, and says it expects to boost overall capacity utilization significantly from last year's weak levels.

Toyota has asked a federal judge to dismiss hundreds of lawsuits over problems with unintended acceleration in its vehicles. The world's largest automaker says such complaints are based on anecdotes, and fail to identify specific defects, Bloomberg News reported.